The present invention generally relates to video game systems and, more particularly, to a kiosk (or station) for printing and communicating video game system images.
Some video game systems provide users the capability of capturing images. For example, as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/430,169, filed Oct. 29, 1999, entitled xe2x80x9cPortable Game Machine Having Image Capture, Manipulation and Incorporationxe2x80x9d, a digital camera cartridge may be used with a portable game machine. The digital camera cartridge includes a memory for storing one or more captured images. Certain video games also involve capturing images. One such game is Pokemon(copyright) Snap for the Nintendo 64(copyright) video game system. Players of the game proceed through various environments in a vehicle that travels through the air, in water and on land and try to xe2x80x9csnapxe2x80x9d the best pictures of various Pokemon(copyright) (pocket monster) characters. The player uses various techniques to get good pictures of the characters including using food and music to entice the characters into positions in which good pictures can be taken. The player has a limited number of exposures on his/her roll of film and may select certain ones of exposures for inclusion in an xe2x80x9calbumxe2x80x9d stored in a read/write memory of the game cartridge. Using the game controller, a player can later review the pictures stored in his/her album on the television connected to the game console.
It would be desirable to provide a system and method for permitting players to compare, share and/or print out images.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a kiosk includes a game machine console having a processing system. The game machine has a connector that, in use, is connected to a cartridge comprising a memory. A video printer has a video input connected to a video output of the game machine console and a video output connected to a video input of a television. Control circuitry is connected to the game machine and to the video printer. The control circuitry is configured to enable a user to selectively print out images stored in the memory of the replaceable memory cartridge.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, the kiosk also includes communication circuitry for communications over a communication network (e.g., the Internet, the public switched telephone network, a local area network, etc.). The communication circuitry is usable to selectively transmit images stored in the memory of a memory cartridge over the communication network. In this way, images may, for example, be electronically mailed (e-mailed) to others. Kiosk users may also submit images from their own memory cartridges to an on-line album maintained, for example, on a web server computer. Kiosk users may also view images submitted to the on-line album by others and/or selectively print out images from the on-line album. In the case of images captured during video game play, an on-line album can be used to build a gaming community of players having common interests and provides an opportunity for game players to compare the results of game playing with each other.
These and many other advantages of the present invention will be more completely understood and appreciated by careful study of the following more detailed description of illustrative embodiments of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.